While driving home from work the other day, I marveled for the umpteenth time about how nice of a drive it is from work to home.  Why is it nice?  Oh, sure, it’s not a super-busy stretch of road I’m driving, and the views of open fields next to suburban neighborhoods are great. Those aren’t it, though.  The real reason the commute is so nice is because, both time- and distance-wise, it’s short.

Traffic is the Real Problem

I entered the working world at the same time I was learning to drive. This led to commuting from school to work and from work to home. The great thing was that we lived in a rural area. Those less populated country roads allowed you to just get in your car and go. Cruising down the road at the speed limit (or a little higher)? Not a problem.

Then I started working at internships for college, and at a summer job when college wasn’t in session. Those commute times could be incredibly slow or extremely fast–it all depended on traffic. See, if traffic is moving along at a rapid pace, even longer commutes don’t bother me. If all I’m doing is a start-stop watch-for-the-taillights dance, the commute drives me nuts.

Past Experiences

You can’t change how good or bad traffic is. You can control how far your commute is, and when you do it–if you’re given a choice in the matter.

When I worked as a contractor, I didn’t get a choice. Going to a new job site, it was usually, “Here’s your hotel, and here’s where you need to be on Monday.” This meant that the distance to work was set for me, and the time to arrive at work would be set by my new manager. I was fortunate in that my commutes were usually 15 to 25 minutes each way.

When I was working out of a company office, which wasn’t often, I had more choices. I’d always rent an apartment or a room in someone’s house nearby, shortening the distance of the commute. Our office hours were also somewhat flexible, allowing me to avoid peak traffic hours. The longest commute I ended up with was about 25 minutes, the shortest an awesome four minutes.

Right before we moved up here to Oregon, after I left my contractor role, I was commuting from Broomfield, Colorado into Boulder.  Those roads tend to get packed between 8 and 9 A.M., so I would try to get into work by 7. Just by doing that, my commute time was only 25 minutes. Driving home, the commute was a long 40 minutes filled with other cars, lower speeds, and taillights aplenty.

Moving was a Chance to Choose My Commute

I really did enjoy driving into Boulder in the morning and looking at the flatirons. That commute home, though, was really frustrating. I was spending the greater part of an hour total on the road each day.

Remember what I said about how you can impact your driving distance and when you do your commute? Well, eventually it was time to change jobs, and we moved up to Oregon. As it was a new job, I didn’t have a lot of say right away as to when I’d need to drive to the office or drive home. The distance, though, I could impact (with the wife’s approval, of course). After much searching (and learning that traffic across the Washington-Oregon bridges is terrible) we found a place that was less than four miles from work. As time went on and I played with when to drive to and from work, I ended up with a commute of about 7 or 8 minutes. That’s only 15 minutes on the road, round trip, each day.

Why Commute Time Should Matter to Everyone

OK, let’s look at the difference between the Oregon commute and the Colorado commute: 15 minutes for Oregon versus an hour for Colorado. That means the Oregon commute saves 45 minutes per day, 3 hours and 45 minutes a week, 187 hours and 30 minutes a year (excluding two weeks of vacation)–that’s almost 8 days worth of my life that I regain every year to, well, live.

There are several reasons, beyond just hating traffic, that everybody should be seeking a short and fast commute. The first is that, given a shorter commute, you’re going to be spending less on fuel. Let’s say you currently live 20 miles from work, meaning a 40 mile round trip each day. If you instead lived 5 miles from work, you’d only have a 10 mile round trip each day. You just cut your time on the road by 75%, meaning you’re using about 75% less fuel too. For trucks in particular, that can be quite a bit of savings over the course of a year.

The shorter commute would also lead to less maintenance required on your vehicle. I was pleasantly surprised that, given how short my commute is now, it’s almost a year between maintenance services. That’s once a year I need to head to the mechanic, rather than four times. Waiting at the mechanic is not something I’m very good about either.

The greatest advantage, though, is that you can sleep later in the mornings and get home faster in the evenings. This was something that was hugely important for me, as I can then see my wife and sons that much sooner in the evenings, and not have to wake up early to beat the traffic.

One last point: If you get stressed when driving, particularly because there is lots of traffic in your commute, switching to a short commute is like having a city block-sized boulder lifted off your shoulders. I didn’t realize how great it would feel until I experienced it myself.

My Next Steps, and Recommended Reading

The next step in home-to-work travel is actually going to make my commute into work take longer: Bicycling. As I mentioned above, it’s less than four miles each way, and even though I only have a mountain bike (handed down to me from some old friends), it should be feasible. I’m willing to take a longer time for even less time driving along with the other cars and for the health benefits it provides.

If you’d like to see a lot more pointed discussion about commute times and the impact they have on your budget, amongst other things, check out the post “The True Cost of Commuting” at Mr. Money Mustache.  While there, be sure to take a look at the comments on that post, too, as there was a lot of good discussion back when the article was originally posted.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, especially from others who have been able to improve their commute. Have a great week!